Delta Air Lines Inc., breaking with tradition among the major U.S. carriers, is shifting its frequent-flier plan so passengers earn awards based on the price of their tickets instead of how far they travel.

Each dollar spent on a fare will earn rewards of 5 to 11 miles, Delta said Wednesday, rather than the usual practice of getting a mile of credit for each mile flown. The highest total will go to SkyMiles members with elite status, Atlanta-based Delta said. The changes take effect Jan. 1, 2015.

“A new model for earning miles will increase rewards for those who spend more as well as differentiate the SkyMiles frequent-flier program for our premium travelers,” Jeff Robertson, the Delta vice president who runs the airline’s loyalty operations, said in a statement.

Delta, the world’s third-largest carrier, follows a path taken by smaller operators, including discounter Southwest Airlines, in basing rewards on fliers’ spending. Airlines use their rewards programs to build repeat business.

Using data from the Dartmouth Atlas – a source of information and analytics that organizes Medicare data by a variety of indicators linked to medical resource use – we recently ranked geographic areas based on markers of end-of-life care quality, including deaths in the hospital and number of physicians seen in the last year of life.